Installation#

Installing internetarchive with pipx#

The internetarchive library is a Python tool for interacting with the Internet Archive, allowing you to search, download, and upload files. To make it easy to use, we recommend installing it with pipx, a tool that installs Python applications in isolated environments.

Note: If you only need the command-line tool and don’t plan to use the Python library, you can download a binary instead. See the Binaries section below for more information.

What is pipx?#

pipx is a tool for installing and running Python applications in isolated environments. It ensures that the tools you install don’t interfere with other Python projects or system-wide packages. It’s perfect for CLI tools like internetarchive.

Prerequisites#

Before installing internetarchive, you’ll need:

  1. Python 3.9 or later: Python 3.9 is the oldest version still officially supported by the Python development team (as of October 2023). You can check your Python version by running:

    python --version

    If Python is not installed, download it from python.org. On MacOS, you can install a supported version of Python with Homebrew (e.g. brew install python3).

  2. `pipx`: If you don’t have pipx installed, please refer to the pipx documentation for installation instructions.

Installing internetarchive#

Once pipx is installed, you can install internetarchive with a single command:

pipx install internetarchive

This will download and install the internetarchive library in an isolated environment, making it available as a command-line tool.

Verifying the Installation#

To confirm that internetarchive is installed correctly, run:

ia --version

If the installation was successful, this will display the version of internetarchive.

Upgrading internetarchive#

To upgrade internetarchive to the latest version, use:

pipx upgrade internetarchive

Uninstalling internetarchive#

If you no longer need internetarchive, you can uninstall it with:

pipx uninstall internetarchive

Troubleshooting#

If you encounter any issues:

  • Permission Errors: Ensure you’re not using sudo with pipx. It’s designed to work without elevated permissions.

  • Command Not Found: Restart your terminal after installing pipx or run pipx ensurepath again.

  • Python Version Issues: Ensure you’re using Python 3.9 or later.

For further assistance with pipx, refer to the pipx documentation.

Binaries#

Binaries are also available for the ia command-line tool:

$ curl -LOs https://archive.org/download/ia-pex/ia
$ chmod +x ia

Binaries are generated with PEX. The only requirement for using the binaries is that you have a supported version of Python installed on a Unix-like operating system.

For more details on the command-line interface please refer to the README, or ia help.